First Sunday of Advent

Advent officially starts December 2, but today is the first Sunday of Advent.

Growing up, I thought Advent was for Catholics, oh how I was wrong. I grew up in the Protestant church, but when I married, I converted to Roman Catholic. It's funny, when I think about it, I can remember telling my mom, "Mom please don't get mad, but I'm no longer a Christian". She asked me what I meant by that..and I replied" I'm now Catholic"...wow....what can I say?!?. Thank you Jesus for allowing me to remain a Christian :)

"The Christian church year begins with Advent (from the Latin adventus meaning coming or arrival) which is also a time when Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. Advent begins on the Sunday nearest November 30 (St. Andrew's Day) and lasts until Christmas Eve.

Advent has been celebrated since the 500's CE. For many centuries, it was a strict observance marked by penitence. Gradually, this time has become more joyful as Christ's coming is celebrated and preparations are made for his Second Coming.

Clergy typically wear royal purple or royal blue vestments during Advent. Many churches also include an advent wreath in their Advent services. The wreath consists of four candles (three purple and one rose) arranged in a circle of evergreen which symbolizes eternal life. The candles are lit progressively as follows:

First Sunday: one purple candle
Second Sunday: two purple candles
Third Sunday: two purple candles and the rose candle
Fourth Sunday: all four candles
The rose candle is also called the "Joy" candle and it comes out of the history of Advent. The Advent fast was broken on the third Sunday in anticipation of the great event to come. Often a fifth white candle will be placed in the center of the circle. This is the Christ Candle, symbolizing Christ's birth, and it is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day."

100th Post

Someone asked me the other day if I could come up with 100 things about ME.

Well, I'm gonna try and here goes.

1. I'm in love with my Heavenly Father
2. I'm a daughter, an only child at that.
3. I'm a wife, to Joe, for 16 years.
4. I'm a birthmom to Rebecca, who is 15.
5. I'm a mother to Joshua, who is almost 14.
6. I'm a mother to Jacob who is 12.
7. I am 37 years old.
8. I've always had dogs for pets.
9. I've never lived anywhere else out of Texas, well sort of.
10. I was a nanny for a family, that moved from Texas to Illinois. (that's the
sort of) for a summer before going to college.
11. My favorite day of the week is Saturday.
12. My favorite holiday besides Christmas is Thanksgiving.
13. My favorite color right now is black. (goes well with anything)
14. My favorite fast food place is Subway.
15. I have too many favorite places to eat
16. My great idea of a recipe is eating out. LOL
17. My favorite place to shop is Hobby Lobby. (was there at 8am this morning)
18. I love fall colors.
19. I love to get my hair done, which includes cut & color.
20. I love to read.
21. I'm learning to cook.
22. I enjoy decorating the Christmas tree.
23. I enjoy blogging.
24. I love to go to new places.
25. I have a fedish of too many sneakers for walking.
26. I have a tanning membership to Palm Beach Tanning.
27. I haven't been to tan in almost 6 months.
28. I would someday learn to makeover my own blog.
29. Looking forward to Josh applying for college. What excitement!
30. I love football. Especially college. Go TECH!
31. I love Mexican food. Awww my weakness.
32. I need to lose about 50 pounds.
33. I have type 2 diabetes. UGH!
34. I enjoy reading YOUR blog!
35. I love to pray over all requests that I read.
36. Would love to someday go on a cruise, I think.
37. My favorite place that I have been to is, Florida.
38. My least favorite place was Jamaica. Not really sure why either.
39. Would like to someday get my teaching certificate and teach elementary.
40. Have always wanted to work as a social worker in an adoption agency.
41. I work for the largest telecommunication company, I do believe.
42. Would love to someday build a house in the hills of Texas. (yes, there are
are a few hills in the south)
43. I don't like to talk on the phone, of course growing up, my mom would disagree
44. I don't watch too much TV.
45. I do like to watch the Dog Whisperer.
46. I'm sort of done with my Christmas shopping. How about you?
47. I don't like hospitals.
48. I dont' like negative people, UGH!
49. Oh my goodness...I can't belive I'm at a loss..already.
50. I can't belive your still reading this. HA!
51. I'm learning a lot about sibiling rivalry. WOW!
52. I'm learing that sibiling rivalry is normal. UGH!
53. I have over 50 blogs listed as my favorite on my computer.
54. So when I have computer problems, you can see why I get frustrated.
55. I pay most of my bills via online banking, wow, what would I do without it.
56. I guess mail them in, uh?
57. I have bought several items off of EBAY.
58. Love Etsy, although I've not bought anything..yet.
59. Have only seen one crimne scene that involved murder.
60. That was when I was in 4th grade. Our neighbor, who was an attorney.
61. I don't belive they ever caught the person.
62. Later in middle school, I actually babysat for the family that moved into that
house years later, MAN, I was scared. I remember, we went back to my house.
63. Today, we put up our Christmas tree.
64. Every year, I buy a few more ornaments.
65. My mom gave me all of my ornaments, that I made as a child, when I got married.
66. I love shopping.
67. I want to someday go to St. Jude, and tour the facility.
68. My heart melts when I hear of another child diagnosed with cancer.
69. I belive in Prayer.
70. I've never met anyone from reading their blog. You?
71. This summer, I want to go to Pigeon Forge. I love that place.
72. I love amusement rides.
73. I love water slides.
74. I love the beach.
75. I hate to go grocery shopping.
76. I always go to the same store, although I've got 4 major stores all within
walking distance.
77. I love me some Starbucks!
78. I've always wanted to homeschool my children.
79. I hate lipstick.
80. Would rather wear a little gloss.
81. I love MAC makeup.
82. I still order from Avon, do you?
83. My least favorite store to go to is Wal-mart.
84. Too many people!
85. I pretty much wash dishes before I put them in the dishwasher to run. Is that
abnormal?
86. I've always had short hair until recently, I wonder what thats about?
87. All of our names begin with J. Did you ever notice that?
88. If we had a girl, that would be tough...not sure about a J name.
89. If my husband reads this, he's gonna think I've lost my mind about #88.
90. My oldest son always tells me when he graduates from college, he's gonna
take care of us. Poor thing...I'm sure he'll change his mind if he doesn't I'm
sure his wife will. HA!
91. My youngest one said he's not going to college. Praying that will change!
92. It's 12:53 AM and I'm almost done.
93. Guess I could do some wrapping. Hmmm...
94. I've got several requests for my homemade chocolate chip cookies from my
kiddo's. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?
95. Won't get to sleep late in the morning, will need to head out early to walk
before the rain gets here.
96. Wow--you've made it to the end with me. HUGS to you.
97. Thinking about what I'm going to do for my 200th post.
98. Still thinking.
99. Think I've got an idea.
100. I'm going to donate $200.00 to St. Jude for my 200th posts. Which means
you'll need to stay with me for that one.


HUGS to ALL of you!

Happy Thanksgiving to YOU!

It's a beautiful morning here and the temp is about 65 degrees.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful day. Keeping you all in our thoughts & prayers throughout this holiday season. So much has happened in our community in the last couple of days, it seems a little sad around here....one reason why I don't like to watch too much TV. Thank you for sharing all of your posts' with me this year and I cannot tell you how much each and every one of you have taught me something about myself. I'm continuing to learn something from ALL of the blogs I visit, every day.


Thanking HIM for you,

What a night!

This evening my husband & I went for our nightly walk. We usually walk about 2 miles every night to every other night. We have several different locations we like to walk: the track at the high school, the walking trail close to our home and of course the good ol' treadmill. Well, this evening, the boys' went to stay the night with Joe's mom and so it was just the two of us. Before heading to the grocery store for the Thanksgiving goodies, we decided we would walk for about 30 minutes. There is a nice little walking trail with a few hills not too far from us. Usually the area is pretty well lit because of the baseball fields. Well, since baseball is over, needless to say it was pretty dark. But, we didn't notice how dark it was until we started out on our venture. I had just made a comment that wow it was pretty dark, but we still felt safe. ok, so fast forwarding here, we noticed a gentleman walking but seemed to be walking a little slower than us, so I figured we would be passing him in just a few short minutes. On top of the hill that we were coming up on, we noticed what we "thought" were 3 teenagers. As they were making their way down the hill, towards the gentleman that was walking ahead of us, we thought that maybe they all knew each other and were huddled together. NOT! As we continued walking closer and closer, we knew NOW that trouble was ahead. All we could hear was "gimme your wallet" and the gentleman yelling, "help me". I didn't have my cell phone BUT Joe did. Not sure if weapons were being used in the attack, I kept asking Joe "what should we do--what should we do?". I forgot that I had walking weights in my hand..about 6-lbs total. I was ready to start swinging..but remembered I knew I needed to remain calm. By this time, the gentleman is down on the ground bleeding out of his mouth and face....one of the guys started running into the woods behind us and there I was trying to run after him. Then I was thinking..what are you doing..so I stopped and went back to the other two guys still hitting and trying to take this man's wallet. By this time Joe was counting...and I was like..oh my gosh..he's going to knock this guy out....so he was on "2" and the guy yelled I'm trying to get my hand out of the pocket. So by now the other two guys were running into the woods. We call the ambulance and the arrive with 4 police cars. Long story short, this little venture was about 3 hours long. They found 2 of the 3 guys and brought them back to the location for us to identify. I thought that was unusual as I thought they would've taken them to the station. Anyway...after looking at them...we had all agreed YEP, they were the ones. So, filling out the affidavit and giving our stories over and over, we left. (oh yeah, the oldest "suspect" was 28)
The gentleman, I still don't know his name, just now realizing this...said I will be forever "thankful" for you and your husband and will pray for you everyday. I'm still distraught as I've never seen an attack happen in front of me. Thanking GOD for putting us in this gentleman's path this evening.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

And not because of the the weather, well not here anyway. The stores are all decorated, the advertisements have hit hard and music is the sound reminder that Christmas is just right around the corner. But wait, what about Thanksgiving? In just less than 4 days, most of us will be celebrating and enjoying a wonderful meal surrounded with people that we love.

I've enjoyed reading your lists' of what you are thankful for, and man do a lot of those hit close to home for me, too. I hope that all of you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter where you are or who you are with.

Giving thanks to HIM for all that I have,

It's almost that time.....

Ok, I think we've all heard about Edward & Bella. Maybe? Well, I've finished the book and now I'm ready to go see the movie. I agree, the book is geared towards teens, however, it's still a book that I had a hard time putting down. I haven't started the 2nd one...but will soon.

Have you started your Christmas shopping..yet?

We will go get our tree next weekend. This year, we are going to do a real tree..how about you?

I'm lovin this time of year....but will be glad to get ready to start the new year as well.

I give up.

Well, I came across a cute little comic about blogging...but then couldn't get it posted big enough for you to see. So, I removed it. A couple of weeks ago, when our computer crashed, once recovered, we downloaded MS Vista. I can tell you know I don't care for it. Sill not sure where all the "tools" are.


I'm not having much luck with this blogging as far as posting links and making pictures bigger. UGH! I need to go to blogging tutorials. :)

Football Crazy & Academics

Around here..it's football...football..and more football!

This past Friday we went to the local playoff game. I'll always be a die hard fan for the Garland Owls. Gig'em OWLS!
Next year we will have another contender in our home. Naaman Forest. I'm trying to talk my son into going to Garland...but it is all about academics too....
Because in the long run...this is his goal...

As we prepare for the rest of the middle school year, we are looking into the horizon of the last 4 years before the BIG C word. Josh has his eyes on Tech..but we want him to make sure he's got 2 or 3 others in mind too. For those of you that have children in college...how hard was it for them to make their mind up and did they get in on their first pick? Josh tells us he wants to be an orthopedic surgeon. He wants to break bones and put them back together. If he does pursue this, he'll be the first one in the family that goes beyond a 4 year school. What an accomplishment that will be! But you know how it goes....we only change our mind a hundred times before we actually finish.

OK, off to enjoy my Sunday with my family. (never figured out how to get a link of our photo gallery....so I guess I'll have to wait until I get the prints and scan.) Hope you guys have an awesome week!

Happy Hump day!

What a week!
We had our photo shoot this past Sunday and what a time we had. Fifty-two photo's in all and our online gallery is up and ready. I will come back and post a link as soon as I try and figure it out. I get a free 5x7 if I do this. Woohoo. So for the last couple of hours, I've been trying to decide. First I was at $504, then I got it down to almost $400..and now I'm stuck. UGH! Deciding..is such a chore. I'm thinking about just buying the whole darn CD. Well, as soon as I get the link up and ready...I'll share with ya. Until then...hope you have a great Wednesday!

Oh yeah, I'm next in line for a blog makeover---so could be next time ya visit, I'll have a new look.

So how was your week?

So glad we've come to another weekend----it's been busy around here. I just came from a blog that talked about change...and man...did I need that.

Earlier in the week, my son asked me to come into his room that he wanted to talk to me. As I sat on his bed with him, he seemed a little sad. He asked me what kids his age do when they lose a parent. Not knowing where this converstaion was headed, I didn't know quite what to say. I could feel the tears filling up my eyes at this point, and could sense much sadness his heart. He then went on to say that his good friend at school, lost his mom earlier that day and that he didn't know what to say to him, other than "I'm sorry". I told him those words are ok, and that if that is all he wanted to say, that was fine. He then asked me if I was going to die soon. Oh lordy, you can only imagine what I was starting to feel about this time. So, I started off with, we are ALL on GOD's time and we are all apart of GOD's plan. We don't know when we will go, but when we do, we need to be ready and prepared for our eternal home. We've had this conversation before, kind of-sort of. But, I think it really hit home seeing what his friend is going through. So, later on this morning, the football team will be attending the funeral for their friend, and I will be sitting in the back taking this all in.

Just another chapter of life....but oh how it hurts.

This is AWESOME

I came across this on Crosswalk.com...Pretty neat!

The Five Finger Prayer

It is sometimes helpful to have a plan to follow when praying. The "Five Finger Prayer" is a simple but effective pattern of prayer:

The thumb is nearest you. So begin praying for those closest to you.

The pointing finger is next. Pray for those who instruct, teach, and heal, including teachers, doctors, and ministers who point others to God.

The tallest finger reminds us to pray for leaders -- men and women in places of influence such as our President, business leaders, your boss -- anyone in power.

The ring finger is the perfect reminder to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain.

The little finger reminds you to pray for yourself.

(Author unknown)

The other night while at Josh's football game, I got to get a few pictures of our niece, Carissa. Also, I got a few with Joe & Jacob. It's like I always have to bribe Jacob with something just so I can get a picture. Well, I wonder what I'll have to bribe him with this weekend as we do our family photo-shoot.


So after bribing him in going to Whataburger after the game, this is the cheesy grin I get.

Way to go Tech!

Living in Texas....football is like the ultimate event...and tonight was crazy! Texas is no longer #1....way to go Texas Tech!!

I'm back up..woohoo!

Thanks to Joe, I'm back in my favorite spot and funny enough you can tell because...

the kids keep asking me what's for breakfast

the laundry keeps getting piled higher & higher

the dog keeps bringing me his ball, ready to play

my first of the Twilight series is still laying beside me..although not for long

my friend just called me and asked if I was ready for our daily 3 mile walk

SO...guess I better log off--but just wanted to say..."It feels so good to be back on line". Oh yeah....Happy first day of November....